Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This is just misleading. Razdan claimed on Twitter that she was joining the Harvard Faculty of Arts, not the Harvard Extension School. Harvard FAS does not have any journalism professors or offer degrees in journalism, and if it did, you would certainly need a PhD.


Posted elsewhere, this is categorically false:

I’m not here to debate this specific claim of phishing, but this is just factually false, _especially_ for applied / practiced humanities. Here are two examples of well respected authors / journalists who are more senior than associate prof at Harvard’s FAS...and this was on just the first link in my first search:

Teju* Cole, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing (an endowed professorship, no less! With only an MA and mphil!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/teju-cole

Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction (also a professor of journalism at Berkeley! With only an MA!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/michael-pollan

HBS likewise has business practitioners without phds on faculty. Their expertise is of value regardless of on-paper credentials.

These are two very well respected writers. Often, in more research oriented disciplines, the “experts” have phds, by necessity. But especially for applied humanities like creative writing and journalism, the experts w the most experience quite often _do not_ have doctorates, and that does nothing to diminish their expertise or professional credentials.


All I know is what she wrote in the post: "Contrary to what many are tweeting, Harvard has a school called the Extension School offering a Journalism Degree Programme. The actual programme is called the Master of Liberal Arts, Journalism degree. The Extension School lists 500 faculty of whom 17 are categorised as journalism faculty. A number of these people are working journalists. I believed I fit this profile."

ADDED: It certainly seems as if the story has changed from something implausible to something vaguely understandable.


I know, and it is irrelevant and misleading. This is what she tweeted in the first place:

"After 21 years at NDTV, I am changing direction and moving on. Later this year, I start as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences."

Nobody is joining Harvard's FAS as as an Associate Professor without a PhD.


I’m not here to debate this specific claim of phishing, but this is just factually false, _especially_ for applied / practiced humanities. Here are two examples of well respected authors / journalists who are more senior than associate prof at Harvard’s FAS...and this was on just the first link in my first search:

Teju* Cole, Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing (an endowed professorship, no less! With only an MA and mphil!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/teju-cole

Michael Pollan, Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction (also a professor of journalism at Berkeley! With only an MA!) https://english.fas.harvard.edu/people/michael-pollan

HBS likewise has business practitioners without phds on faculty. Their expertise is of value regardless of on-paper credentials.

These are two very well respected writers. Often, in more research oriented disciplines, the “experts” have phds, by necessity. But especially for applied humanities like creative writing and journalism, the experts w the most experience quite often _do not_ have doctorates, and that does nothing to diminish their expertise or professional credentials.


I believe GP is referring to her original announcement here: https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1271705895437651968




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: